Xing Ya and Wu Wen were born on Aug. 5 and Aug. 11, respectively, so the Ouwehands Zoo decided to celebrate on Aug. 8, the luckiest number in Chinese tradition.

The zoo treated the pandas to a three-layered cake of panda goodies.

"We have a big cake consisting of three layers. The lower one is the red one, and it has beetroot syrup in it. The second one has apples, slices of carrots, and the top one too. And, in between, you can see small sticks that are bamboo sticks, of course. And then on top we have four candles, and I just saw that he ate one of them," said Jose Kok, a biologist at the animal park.

Both pandas arrived in the Netherlands from China in April after 16 years of hard lobbying by Dutch animal lovers.

Pandas are in demand from zoos all over the world and the ceremonial bestowing of a loan panda on favored countries has become a hallmark of Chinese cultural diplomacy.